Zero Covid death after month

Bangladesh reported zero Covid death and 216 cases in the 24 hours to Sunday morning, report agencies.

The country last reported zero Covid-linked death on June 29.

While Bangladesh's total fatalities remained unchanged at 29,302, the new number took its caseload to 2,007,335, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The daily case test positivity rate dropped to 5.10 per cent from Saturday's 5.56 per cent as 4,233 samples were tested.

The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.46 per cent. The recovery rate rose to 97.05 from Saturday's 97.02 per cent.

In July, Bangladesh reported 142 Covid-linked deaths and 31,422 cases - its highest death toll and caseload since March this year.

The country first reported its zero Covid death on November 20 last year since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020.

Bangladesh registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 the same year.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh will administer Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses to children aged 5-11 on a test basis in Dhaka on Aug 11, according to Minister for Health and Family Planning Zahid Maleque.

The nationwide rollout for the programme starts Aug 25, the health minister said at an event to commemorate World Breastfeeding Week 2022 on Sunday.

"Trials begin Aug 11. If the results are positive, we will move ahead at full speed. It will first be distributed in Dhaka. The vaccination programme will then be expanded to other districts."

Another 1.5 million Pfizer coronavirus vaccine doses specifically designed for children arrived on Sunday, Maleque said. COVAX sent another 1.52 million doses on Jul 30, which means over 3 million doses are in stock for children.

The Directorate General of Health Services plans to vaccinate 22 million children across the nation against the coronavirus.

On Feb 8, 2021, Bangladesh began administering the COVID vaccine to people over 60 years of age nationwide on Feb 8, 2021. Since then, the lower age limit has been steadily lowered to 28 years of age.

School and college students between the ages of 12 and 17 were given the vaccine last year.

According to the DGHS, Bangladesh has administered the first dose of the vaccine to 129.76 million people so far.

The second dose has been given to 120.7 million, while the third dose, known as a booster, has been given to 40.65 million.

Globally the overall number of Covid cases is fast approaching 589 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.

According to the latest global data, the total case count mounted to 588,866,875 and the death toll reached 6,435,704 on Sunday morning.

The US has recorded 93,897,604 cases so far and 1,058,726 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows.

India's daily COVID-19 caseload on Saturday fell below the 20,000 mark a day after showing an increase, officials said.

According to federal health ministry data released on Saturday morning, 19,406 new cases of COVID-19 were reported during the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 44,126,994 in the country. Currently, the active caseload stands at 134,793.

The country also logged 49 related deaths during the past 24 hours, pushing the overall death toll to 526,649, the ministry said.